Position Overview

Title
:
Assistant Professor without Tenure, Associate Professor without Tenure

Search Number
:
AA28135

Position Details

The Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education (BIME) at the University of Washington (UW) is looking for one full-time faculty at the Assistant Professor Without Tenure or Associate Professor Without Tenure level to join our current faculty as the Director of Educational Evaluation in the Division of Medical Education. This is a full-time, indefinite term position with a 12-month appointment. All University of Washington faculty engage in teaching, research, and service. For this position, the expectation is 20% research and scholarship and 80% teaching/service. Applicants require an Ed.D., Ph.D., or foreign equivalent in Evaluation and Measurement, Psychometrics, Curriculum Development or related field and progressively responsible employment in a medical education environment. The successful applicant will work closely with the Vice, Associate and Assistant Deans of the UW School of Medicine (UWSoM) developing, implementing and evaluating curricular milestones and innovations, program evaluation and performance assessment. The Director of Educational Evaluation manages multiple staff assistants who coordinate all assessments of student academic and clinical performance, student evaluations of courses, clerkships and faculty, and program evaluation of the curriculum, multiple tracks, pathways and educational innovations.

The Division of Medical Education and the UW School of Medicine medical education programs have a dynamic and synergistic collaboration that strives to continually improve every facet of the undergraduate medical education experience for students and faculty. The Teaching Scholars Program, that provides pedagogic skills for physicians and other health professions, resides within the Division and the Center for Leadership and Innovation in Medical Education (CLIME) has a close relationship with the Division; both are deeply committed to creating, training and nurturing clinician-educators. The WWAMI program of the UWSoM extends the physical presence of the School of Medicine across 5 states and nearly 23% of the nation’s geographic area. The network of 6 regional teaching campuses and hundreds of clinical training sites across the 5 states provides a rich environment for implementing pilot experiments to improve the medical education experience. The same context requires constant vigilance to ensure comparability of educational experiences and outcomes consistent with LCME accreditation requirements. The Director of Educational Evaluation plays a vital role in monitoring comparability and outcomes.

Major teaching and service responsibilities include the following:

Collaboration with Academic Leadership — Regularly meet with the Associate Dean for Curriculum, Associate Dean for Education Strategies, Director of Curriculum, Director of Academic and Learning Technologies, Dean for Continuous Quality Improvement and others to discuss and implement evaluation and assessment within the MD curriculum. This includes primary design and support of current assessment and evaluation activities, development of new initiatives such as methods to evaluate student participation in small groups and increase narrative evaluation of students, and provision of information in support of CQI initiatives of the curriculum. Routine presentation of summary data to relevant committees.

Student Evaluation of Courses and Faculty –– Develop, implement, and supervise the reporting student evaluations of courses, clerkships, instruction and faculty. This is done for all required courses and clerkships in the Foundations (preclinical) Phase, Patient Care Phase, and Explore and Focus Phase of the curriculum. This will be expanded soon to include all elective clerkships as well. Present summary results from course evaluations in multiple settings both on an established and ad hoc schedule with the intention of being responsive to student feedback and continuous improvement of the curriculum and its teaching sites.

Assessment of Student Performance — Develop, review and implement measures of student performance and provide reports on results for all phases of the curriculum. This includes written tests, observations of student performance and other measures during the Foundations Phase. After each assessment within a block, results are reviewed, and adjusted as necessary. Reports are developed and distributed after each assessment, including lists of students at risk for failure. Analyses of outcomes also include evaluation of student performance on longitudinal “threads” and student performance on block objectives. Observational ratings of student contribution to small groups, participation in clinical activities, and achievement of clinical milestones are collected and reported as part of student assessment. Support and analyses for the Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) at the end of the Foundations Phase and Patient Care Phase are also provided. Assessment outcomes are linked to the UWSoM’s Medical Education Program Objectives and reports are currently made available to faculty and curriculum leadership. Conduct the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Comprehensive Basic Science Examination at the end of Foundations. Oversee ongoing analyses of student performance on USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 related to student performance by discipline, student demographics and regional campus. This individual also prepares and analyzes data for multiple special projects as requested by the Vice Dean, Associate Deans, Assistant Deans and others, including ongoing analyses in support of achieving LCME standards. The Director of Evaluation chairs and manages the Program Evaluation and Assessment Committee, a permanent subcommittee of the Curriculum Committee consisting of faculty, staff and students.

Innovation with Academic and Learning Technologies – Collaboration with the Director of Academic and Learning Technologies on an initiative to establish a flexible student evaluation and assessment data base that will support dashboard reporting of student success in achieving Medical Education Program Objectives to students, faculty, mentors / advisors, and deans at all levels of the curriculum. This project is also in support of collecting and reporting data needed for curriculum monitoring and the development of interventions for CQI projects.

New Initiatives to be Extended — Continued improvement of learning objectives for each instructional unit of the curriculum as well as developing, implementing and evaluating a system of milestones and EPAs. Ensure that each objective and milestone is measured by an assessment and that the outcomes for each objective and milestone are captured. Guide faculty in the development and implementation of USMLE Board-style questions for course examinations that will help prepare students for Step 1. Develop methods by which results from disparate data sources and types are combined to provide accurate and fair measures of program outcomes and continue to monitor the coverage of these objectives by specific activities within all aspects of the curriculum. Participate as called upon in faculty development to advance course faculty knowledge of and relevant skills in areas such as test question development.

The successful candidate will also supervise 5-6 staff members responsible for 1) all performance assessment in the Foundation Phase of the curriculum, including OSCEs 2) student evaluations of courses/instructors in all phases of the curriculum and 3) development of new technologies for tracking student performance.

Committee Memberships: Participate as a member or staff of committees charged with the governance of the MD degree curriculum. Co-Chair the Program Evaluation and Assessment Committee, a sub-committee of the curriculum committee, dealing with recommendations regarding policy and programs for assessment and evaluation.

The position is especially suitable for candidates who have a demonstrable history of translating service and evaluation activities into publishable manuscripts and other scholarship, and working collaboratively with multiple faculty to advance their educational scholarship. The expectation is that this scholarship of both discovery and synthesis will comprise 20% of the activities of the position.

At the University of Washington, diversity is integral to excellence. We value and honor diverse experiences and perspectives, strive to create a welcoming and respectful learning environment, and promote access, opportunity and justice for all.

Application Instructions

A letter of intent/personal statement highlighting their interests, background, practical experience and career goals pertaining specifically to the teaching/service and scholarship roles in the area of medical education and evaluation outlined above.

The letter should include experiences with diversity in training, professional work, previous teaching, and/or in service, and describe the candidate’s potential to foster diversity in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education and the field.

A CV (including at least 3 references/letter writers)

A statement of teaching interests or teaching philosophy.

University of Washington is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.